Hot Stamper Pressings of of the Music of Brahms Available Now
UPDATE 2026
We reviewed this recording using a single early pressing back in 2012. We don’t do things like that anymore, but we have to admit that we often did things that way back then.
We reviewed this recording using a single early pressing back in 2012. We don’t do things like that anymore, but we have to admit that we often did things that way back then.
Until about twenty years ago we had no idea how incomplete and inadequate our understanding of any title would turn out to be with only a single copy on hand. When we began doing shootouts in 2004, immediately it became obvious that only a stack of cleaned pressings allowed us to recognize what a recording’s strengths and weaknesses might be.
More to the point, it offered us the opportunity to clearly identify the best record in the group — the pressing whose superior sound quality stood above all others.
These “record experiments” taught us many important lessons. The process of playing copy after copy of the same record and noting the differences we heard made us better listeners.
Through this work, carried out over the course of many years, we learned that there was only one way to find better sounding records. Everything else is a guess, just like our review of the record above was a guess.
These “record experiments” taught us many important lessons. The process of playing copy after copy of the same record and noting the differences we heard made us better listeners.
Through this work, carried out over the course of many years, we learned that there was only one way to find better sounding records. Everything else is a guess, just like our review of the record above was a guess.
Back to Brahms. This is our current favorite Brahms Second Piano Concerto.
This original Maroon Label Mercury pressing has big and rich sound on side two, with a side one that’s very nearly as good.
In fact the piano itself on side one earned a grade of A++ for its amazingly present and real sound. It’s the orchestra that’s the problem, but that happens quite often with Mercury piano concerto records in our experience. We’re just happy that side two sounds so good and that side one is clearly a big step up from the average copy.
